Parking fines – resistance isn’t futile

It has been a long time but I’m afraid we have been issued with another car parking ticket. The offender is adamant that – this time – it is not her fault. 

She used the parking app on her mobile as normal. Based on that app she understood that the parking ticket was paid. There were no error messages or anything else untoward warning her that there was a problem with payment.

Barely a few days later the car packet ticket came through. On checking the bank account, no parking fee has been debited. So something had gone wrong with payment.

The offender carefully explained what had happened to the car parking enforcer. However, it seems the circumstances are irrelevant. She didn’t pay for the parking and is liable. She must pay the £100 within 14 days or face going to court. Should she pay or fight her corner?

The offender wisely decided to continue making her appeal. It is more than a point of principle. The offender writes again with her representations and, only a few weeks later, the car park operator backs down. If she pays the original parking fee (£5.50), that will be an end to the matter. Result. The original parking fee is paid and the matter is at an end.

We wonder: 

1. how many other offenders have simply paid up in these circumstances, and
2. for those enforcing the parking notices, do they have some issue in enforcing the parking notice if payment has been made on a parking app but which has not been processed?

Challenging claims, following complaints processes and putting up a fight are actions that should not be confined just to parking notices. Defective goods, inadequate services and breaches of contracts are some of several things that many of us simply put up with. But there is a choice and a difference can really be made by putting up a fight. Resistance isn’t futile.